We are called to fellowship with other believers, gathering together to encourage one another in pursuing and walking in God’s will. When we get into relationships, it can be easy to push other relationships, routines, even God, aside, simply because we are so excited about spending time with the one person. However, it is essential we get back to the basics in our relationships and make time for intentional fellowship with other people, even in the midst of a relationship with our significant other.

Ways to fellowship with others, together:

Go to church together.

Fellowship is important to God – he encourages us multiple times in scripture to meet together with other believers.

Just as Jesus fellowshipped with his followers here on earth, we cannot give up on community, especially when we are wrapped up in our relationship.

However, one way we can both be in fellowship with others and strengthen our relationship with our significant other is by going to church together. In this way, we also increase our time spent with God and obey his command of going to church.

Actively serve together.

If you have the opportunity to actively serve together in church or in community, go for it. This can be a spectacular time to give back to others and strengthen your relationship with each other at the same time.

Be with each other in community.

You can learn a lot about a person while in the presence of other people. When in a relationship it is important to get to know each other personally, as well as around others – friends, family, church community, co-workers.

Even as your relationship deepens and you’ve been together for a long time, don’t stop with the double-dates or the small groups in your home or building community.

Have friends, individually.

Don’t isolate yourselves. A lot of times when two people begin a relationship, they tend to want to spend all their time with each other. Though this is natural, it is important to keep your own friendships strong. Being together with just you and your significant other is its own type of isolation, and it can be very damaging to other relationships, and your romantic relationship if not handled with care.

On the other hand, when you’ve been in a relationship for a long period of time, you will have to switch your focus and make sure you do make time to spend with just each other, as life tends to get in the way over the years. It is a balancing act between building community together, individually, and with each other.

Support each other.

You won’t always be doing the same things, serving in the same places, or fellowshipping with the same people, simply because you don’t have the same interests or availability. However, you can still support and encourage each other. This is an important part of fellowship that is vital – encouragement. It is ok to have individual interests and friendships – as partners, we should abstain from jealousy or judgement and instead remain encouraging our significant other to be in fellowship even while in a relationship.

We are called to fellowship – to be in community with other believers, strengthening our relationships and obeying God’s call on our lives. There are many ways we can do this, but we must be intentional about it. We have to make sure life doesn’t get in the way so we can get back to the basics in our relationships and stay focused on fellowship.